Boy who went missing for two hours says: ‘This was the greatest day of my life!’

Chris Villavicencio with his sister at the Central Park Zoo. (Philly.com)

Chris Villavicencio’s parents were panicked when they realized they lost their mildly autistic, 9-year-old son at Manhattan’s Central Park Zoo on Saturday. The parents, who are Peruvian natives and speak only Spanish, contacted authorities and police searched for the lost boy for two hours. Meanwhile, Chris was having a great adventure.

Chris, who lives in New Jersey with his family, told the New York Daily News that he tried to find his parents in the zoo but couldn’t and so he wandered out of the park and headed for Times Square. He used tall landmark buildings, he said, to help him get around.

Eventually, Chris wandered into the Bus Depot where two port authorities noticed the young boy who looked lost and took him to a police station where they learned he had been reported missing.

“This was the greatest day of my life,” Chris told the New York Daily News, “because this was the first day I was at the police station!”

Chris’s mother and sister met the boy at the bus station and a police office drove them back to Central Park to reconnect with the father.

Freddy Villavicencio hugged his son tightly as tears streamed down his face.

When Chris went to hug his sister, he told her, “Remember, don’t wander off,” according to the Daily News